The invention relates to a positioning device for halves of slaughtered animal bodies, in particular pig halves, suspended on hooks for optical capture in the cleaving plane with subsequent evaluation and classification.
In slaughterhouses and meat processing installations, halves of slaughtered animal bodies, such as pig halves, are usually transported suspended on a single hook, Euro hook, e.g. via tubular tracks, wherein the left and right half of a slaughtered animal are suspended on successive hooks.
Evaluation and classification of pigs are carried out according to the relevant requirements on the basis of the left half, e.g. by means of optical image processing, for which purpose an optical capture is effected in the cleaving plane, such as in the ham and loin region, with the aid of an electronic camera.
In order to avoid parallax errors, which would lead to measurement errors during computer-aided evaluation of the captures and to incorrect quality classification and evaluations, the halves of slaughtered animal bodies are guided in a known manner in the cleaving plane by at least two guide tubes or elements, which are disposed in a horizontally in a fixed manner vertically one above the other with a sufficient spaced disposition, outside the relevant capture region.
In practice it may be the case that halves suspended on single hooks are not aligned exactly in parallel with the capture plane owing to the position of the centre of gravity being unfavourable or owing to poor sliding movement on the guides.
DE 30 49 589 A1 discloses a device for classifying meat using a plate to align the slaughtered animal halves in the measuring station. The slaughtered animal halves are supplied to the measuring station with video cameras for sensing the slaughtered animal halves along a transport track.
An alignment plate is disposed on a support bracket and is in the form of a scoop with a rectangular contact surface. The alignment plate is brought towards the transport track by means of a working cylinder. The slaughtered animal half comes to lie against the plate by reason of its own weight, and video capture takes place.
The alignment plate used for positioning purposes is constructionally and mechanically complex, wherein, in addition, only small through-put quantities of halves of slaughtered animal bodies can be classified.